Much like their physical counterparts, the materials we use to build websites have purpose. To use them without understanding their strengths and limitations is irresponsible. Nobody wants to live in an poorly-built house. So why are poorly-built websites acceptable?

In this post, I’m going to address WAI-ARIA, and how misusing it can do more harm than good.

Materials as technology

In construction, spackle is used to fix minor defects on interiors. It is a thick paste that dries into …

Considering that written words are the foundation of any interface, it makes sense to give your website’s typography first-class treatment. When setting type, the details really do matter. How big? How small? How much line height? How much letter-spacing? All of these choices affect the legibility of your text and can vary widely from typeface to typeface. It stands to reason that the more attention paid to the legibility of your text, the more effectively you convey a message.…

Boston, like many large cities, has a subway system. Commuters on it are accustomed to hearing regular public address announcements.

Riders simply tune out some announcements, such as the pre-recorded station stop names repeated over and over. Or public service announcements from local politicians and celebrities—again, kind of repetitive and not worth paying attention to after the first time. Most important are service alerts, which typically deliver direct and immediate information riders need to take action on.

The open web’s success is built on interoperable technologies. The ability to control animation now exists alongside important features such as zooming content, installing extensions, enabling high contrast display, loading custom stylesheets, or disabling JavaScript.

Sites all too often inundate their audiences with automatically playing, battery-draining, resource-hogging animations. The need for people being able to take back control of animations might be more prevalent than you may initially think.